London: Andrea Leadsom, one of the two Conservative candidates to be British Prime Minister, withdrew from the running on Monday, leaving Home Secretary Theresa May as the only remaining candidate.
Leadsom said she concluded she does not have "sufficient support" to win adding that the country needs certainty, not a nine-week leadership race.
The party is expected to say whether it will to re-open the contest to candidates eliminated in earlier rounds, or declare May the winner unopposed. If so, May could be prime minister within days and will replace David Cameron when he bids farewell to the office on September 9.
May will be the only second female Prime Minister of the country after Margaret Thatcher.
In a ballot last week, Conservative lawmakers chose Home Secretary Theresa May and Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom to fight a runoff contest for leadership of Britain’s governing party.
May received 199 votes in a ballot of Conservative members of Parliament, while Leadsom received 84. Justice Secretary Michael Gove got 46 votes and was eliminated from the race.
Some 150,000 Conservative Party members were to vote to choose between May and Leadsom by postal ballot.
Britain’s first female prime minister was Margaret Thatcher, a Conservative who governed from 1979 to 1990.
The new leader will be responsible for leading Britain’s exit negotiations with the 28-nation EU as well as helping to steady the country’s government and economy, which has been deeply shaken by markets’ reaction to the EU vote.
May, 59, supported the losing “remain” side in the EU vote but said that she was the best person to unite a party that – like the country – is divided over the referendum result.
She said she was delighted to have won support from “leavers and remainers, MPs from the length and breadth of the country.”
“This vote shows that the Conservative Party can come together – and under my leadership it will,” she said.
May has drawn criticism for failing to guarantee that citizens of EU countries who live in Britain will be able to remain after Brexit. That has led to accusations she is using European citizens as pawns in the EU divorce talks.
